FLORIDA REPUBLICANS BACK DOWN, DROP LAWSUIT AGAINST DEMOCRATS OVER HOPE FLORIDA AD

TALLAHASSEE, FL – The Republican Party of Florida has voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against the Florida Democratic Party, three statewide Democratic candidates, and 11 television stations over an ad exposing the $10 million Hope Florida scandal.

RPOF filed the suit late Friday night in Highlands County, seeking an immediate order to block the ad before Democrats could respond, while its lawyers warned stations that airing it could be a crime. On Tuesday, a circuit judge denied Republicans’ request to pull the ad without hearing from Democrats. On Wednesday, the GOP dropped the case.

“Well, that didn’t take long,” said Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried. “Republicans raced to court in the middle of the night to silence us, threatened TV stations, and tried to scare Floridians out of talking about Hope Florida. After a judge denied their emergency request to pull our ad, they walked away from their own case. Their stunt backfired. Thanks to this lawsuit, more Floridians are paying attention, and the pressure for answers keeps mounting. Who decided to send $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to the first lady’s charity? Why did $8.5 million of it end up in a political committee run by James Uthmeier? And what did the Republican Party of Florida do with its share? Those questions aren’t going away just because Republicans dropped their lawsuit.”

The lawsuit was the latest in a string of efforts to keep Hope Florida out of public view, including more than $327,000 in taxpayer-funded outside legal fees tied to the investigation, and months of court fights over the release of the grand jury report.